ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the legal regulation of reproduction, particularly the ways in which the law constructs mothers and fathers, and the fraught cultural context of the 'mother'. It examines choices not to parent in the context of abortion law; and how parenthood has been redefined by medicine and law in relation to surrogacy and assisted reproduction. The fundamental issue underlying debate around abortion is whose rights take precedence: those of the mother, or those of the foetus. Surrogacy challenges ideals of motherhood because the woman who delivers the child does not intend to bring that child up. While the ideal mother sacrifices herself for her child, the surrogate mother voluntarily hands the child to a third party. This separation of child-bearing from social (and sometimes genetic) motherhood poses challenges for traditional and feminist approaches to motherhood, as well as to the law.
